In a rare Monday morning meeting of the Lafayette City-Parish Council, members voted unanimously to annex 271 acres in south Lafayette Parish to pull Les Vieux Chenes Golf Course, Fabacher Field and acreage for a future water-storage facility into the corporate bounds of Lafayette. In completing the annexation, the city of Lafayette did an end run, literally and figuratively, around the city of Broussard, which last week purchased a strip of land Lafayette had intended to annex to reach the golf course via the new Ambassador Caffery South extension; the private property included in Monday’s annexation ordinance is adjacent to the land Broussard purchased last week to block Lafayette from reaching the golf course.
Clearly concerned that Broussard would attempt to purchase any land Lafayette intended to annex to reach the course, the Durel administration kept its cards close to the vest, publishing the notice for Monday’s special meeting in The Sunday Advertiser and sending out electronic notice of the meeting to local media Sunday morning, thereby giving the city of Broussard virtually no time to intervene. Administration officials gave no indication of their alternate annexation plan last week when they announced that they were pulling the original ordinance due to Broussard’s land purchase.
The apparent subterfuge by the administration incensed Councilman William Theriot, whose district covers the areas under dispute. Theriot complained that he wasn’t privy to any meetings the Durel administration had with land owners in the area. “This is in my district,” Theriot said, “I was told there would be meetings — and that’s a good thing. ...I got a call from a constituent on this route [who asked], ‘William, why weren’t you in these meetings?’ I didn’t know meetings were taking place.” Theriot also complained that District 7 Councilman Don Bertrand, who doesn't represent the area, was present at a meeting with landowners.
City-Parish President Joey Durel countered that only one meeting took place at City Hall with two landowners and that Bertrand, who happened to be meeting with Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley at the time, was a sort of “accidental” attendee. But the clarification did little to allay Theriot’s aggravation. “I’m really concerned and disappointed in how this happened,” the District 9 representative said.
Only one blue card was submitted for public comment — from Cornell Bodenstiener, a south Lafayette resident who lives northeast of Les Vieux Chenes. “This thing was done in full darkness,” Bodensteiner said of the annexation. “This is not the way our government is supposed to work.” Bodenstiener used his full five minutes of comment time to give the Durel administration the business. “I’m certainly appalled that the representative of that area was not brought into the circle,” he added near the end, calling the timing on Lafayette’s notification of the meeting “a big pile of smelly, stinky, 3-day-old crawfish tales and heads.”
Monday’s action by the CPC doesn’t settle the annexation battles in south Lafayette Parish where the Ambassador extension runs through unincorporated land near the boundaries of Lafayette, Broussard and Youngsville; Broussard’s city council will consider another round of annexation at its meeting this week, and Youngsville is also working on obtaining land along the corridor, which promises to be a lucrative source of sales tax when it is developed in the coming years.
I'd like to know what Councilman William Theriot had to say about THIS:
"the city of Broussard, which last week purchased a strip of land Lafayette had intended to annex to reach the golf course via the new Ambassador Caffery South extension."
Don't get your panties in a knot when someone does to you what you've done to them.
... written by existentialist homme , April 26, 2010 - 01:41 pm
BROUSSARDIANS, You cannot say you were not warned, "Durel has the best crooks in the state at his disposal, with all the sleigh of hand, under the table manipulating experience, with a most grossly money interest in the expansion of Lafayette City, some of the cronys are even able to move land perimeter stakes in the dark of night sans GPS, and while the city administration and their cronys rape the surrounding land area for their own selfish future interest, they continue to pull the wool over the city's residents by having them think it is all for the good of Lafayette, while in all truth, any secretive land grabbing is for the future monetary gain of the administrations crony developers, AND THE PIE GETS BIGGER AND BIGGER,ahhhhh " PROGRESS, EH JOEY ?
... written by yesidoknow , April 26, 2010 - 01:57 pm
Sooners vs. Boomers. Let's get it on.
... written by Kevin Breaux , April 26, 2010 - 02:07 pm
It appears that even though Mr. Theriot was upset, he still voted for the annexation.
... written by The Original Northsidian , April 26, 2010 - 04:13 pm
Well it looks like I have to eat crow! I thought the guy from Broussard had one-upped the guy from the pet shop. But I was wrong. It looks like the guy from Broussard is a checker player. And, the guy from the pet shop is a master at playing chess. The game will certianly be interesting to watch!!
... written by The Original Northsidian , April 26, 2010 - 05:27 pm
Also the chessman and his team probably didn't tell Theriot because he would have probably ratted them out!! He didn't seem to be as upset when the checker player made his move without informing him. Maybe Theriot should not be playing in the big league. Could he be a T-Ball player?
... written by Unempirical Observer , April 26, 2010 - 08:24 pm
Oh HooHooHoo ...and the plot thickens!
Fortune Favors the Bold.
When Youngsville gets theirs on the southside of Caffery, Broussard's dual annexations to the west will be thwarted.
Too bad we can't read all the emails for ourselves.
Anybody read the Youngsville minutes though; buried in the back of Saturday's Advertiser you could see the record of Youngsville council members worried about being "sneaky and under-handed" because their mayor held this close to the vest as well, introducing his intro resolution suddenly.
Too bad it's all going down this way. Sure doesn't engender public trust when everyone is engaging in pre-emptive "just" wars of annexation.
... written by NorthsidiaN Shotgun , April 26, 2010 - 09:35 pm
Everything is buried in the back pages of the Daily Rag, because in the back of the Daily Rag, there is a great deal of empty advertisement space, and this space has to be utilized or the page cutter will lop off at 1/2 page, " That would be a first, although it is due to happen..............
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"the city of Broussard, which last week purchased a strip of land Lafayette had intended to annex to reach the golf course via the new Ambassador Caffery South extension."
Don't get your panties in a knot when someone does to you what you've done to them.